The present problems of Iraq are 100% down to our murderous invasion and occupation. The idea that further western bombing will make things better is so deluded as to beggar belief.

I was surprised to find during my Burnes research that the imperialist powers of Britain and Russia were explicitly exploiting Sunni and Shia divisions to further their conquests of Islamic lands as early as the 1830’s. This has been the major tool of the neo-con Middle Eastern gameplan for some time, spreading disunity and crippling war throughout the Middle East, with the hope that this will benefit the interests of Israel.

The peculiar result has been that in general the West is very actively supporting Sunni armies and miscellaneous forces, but in Iraq is supporting the Shia. ISIS – which is heavily backed by the Saudis, who hate al-Maliki – brings this paradox into sharp relief. The current US and UK strategy is to persuade Saudi Arabia to get ISIS to reconcentrate their efforts against Assad, on the understanding they will be allowed to keep the Sunni areas of Iraq (the old neo-con plan of dividing Iraq is firmly back on the agenda).

The BBC News this morning said that ISIS would not be capable of using the billions of dollars of sophisticated western armaments they have captured. I think you will find the Saudis remedy that one quite quickly. It is quite possible we will see some token airstrikes to kill civilians in Mosul, in order to appease Obama’s domestic backers who are never happy if Americans aren’t killing enough people, but only after agreement has been reached with the Saudis that no serious harm will be done – except to the ordinary people neither Obama, the Saudis or al-Maliki care in the least about.

616 Comments

And what exactly is wrong about what RationalWiki says about Global Research? I note yet another case of your usual approach of attacking those who disagree with you rather than their arguments – which as always I take as a sign of the weakness of your case.

This reads like an Israeli press handout which it probably is. The new photo shows the IDF crouching down wearing those ridiculously big hats. I was once told what they were for but I have forgotten. Something to do with camouflage I think it was.

“The present problems of Iraq are 100% down to our murderous invasion and occupation. The idea that further western bombing will make things better is so deluded as to beggar belief.”

While I can agree with the second sentence – the first really beggars belief. Saddam, Baathism, religious fundamentalism, the situation in Syria are in effect dismissed as irrelevances. One of the valid criticisms of the invasion of Iraq was that it did not fully understand the history or forces at play in Iraq – now Craig appears to have fallen for the same mistake.

“In the meantime my wish is for him to answer in court for his crimes before being sent to Fallujah for an extended sentence of community service. That way, he’ll have to look into the eyes of some of the people whose lives he has blighted.”

It’s a good idea, but I fear that few in Fallujah would even recognise him or remember what he did. Sectarian violence, lynchings, bombings between Muslims, this is the daily reality in these parts of the world. It’s either that or brutal dictatorship. Punishing Blair for what he did 11 years ago would not even register on most Iraqis’ list of priorities. That is what comfortable middle class student union types like Sofia occupy themselves with here. They’re playing their own politics and it’s very far removed from the realities of life in Iraq.

I’m sure millions of “would be” millionaires will be pawing over every word he writes and every sound he utters, to give a hint as to how they too could also become rich.

The problem is a system that rewards “being Blair”. This is a system that is all about “getting away with it”, and for those who do the ends justify the means. Such a system is, of course, insane.

I’m no economist but it is simple economics that the purpose of business in a free market sense is to make money. Period. Just to make money. That sounds very cold, but it is true, for those who wish to be successful.

In a capitalist system the potential excesses of business are kerbed by “society”, which through government seeks to protect the people against the excesses of unbridled business.

At some point government became overrun by business. This is no longer a capitalist system, but is rapidly becoming about money, money, money, money, money… ad infinitum. Nice for those having money, but increasingly hell for those who don’t.

In the UK it started with Thatcher, and her mantra “there is no such thing as society” should have been a warning to everyone who wasn’t very rich. Blair has just followed in Thatcher’s footsteps. We shouldn’t blame Blair, but blame ourselves for letting Thatcher’s “no society” become the reality we are seeing today.

On a more positive note, it is nice of Andrew Marr to remind us all of his crucial “Squealer” role in getting the British public on side with regard to the Blair-Bush monstrosity, and the “Beyond Iraq…” parody by Bremner, Bird and Fortune was a worthy counter to the lies of Marr and co. The fact that this could only get onto the media through devious means like satire shows that we were no longer living in a properly democratic society even then. The historical lessons were to be learned from 1930s Germany… to quote Don McLean”: “They were not listening, they are not listening still, perhaps they never will…”

When GW Bush landed,by his own hand,that remote controlled plane on tha aircraft carrier with the billowing banner in the background declaring “Mission Accomplished” over a decade ago how was he to know these pesky Iraqi towelheads are so dumb they,a decade or more later,stlll dont realise Team USA won the righteous and noble war when he,The Preznet,said so.?

“No mention within of the atrocities committed on Palestinian children of course.”

Yes, Mary, we all know that to read the Shipping Forecast without mention of the atrocities committed on the Palestinian children is a crime against humanity.

Now, when are you going to find the time to mention the violence meted out by Muslims on other Muslims, all over the Muslim world on a daily basis, which makes any crime by the IDF pale into insignificance in comparison?

Shia v Sunni…. Catholics v Protestants… Romans v Pagans, “us” v “them”, it is the same old story. Teach one people a (religious) doctrine that makes them feel superior… and that is likely to provoke war. Back to John Lennon: “Imagine…”

@Peter Kemp”: you sure stirred a few brain cells with your rewriting of “If…”!

America and NATO intention to execute airstrikes in Iraq and Syria clearly demonstrates Craig’s insight and wisdom in his deadly expectation, a terse hypothesis that will dramatically escalate war in the region and further alienate Russia and Iran.

ISIS – which is heavily backed by the Saudis, who hate al-Maliki – brings this paradox into sharp relief. The current US and UK strategy is to persuade Saudi Arabia to get ISIS to reconcentrate their efforts against Assad, on the understanding they will be allowed to keep the Sunni areas of Iraq (the old neo-con plan of dividing Iraq is firmly back on the agenda).

RD I’ve been following Global Research for two years now and its articles, and Professor Chossudovsky’s analysis in particular, is spot on. That RationalWiki is doing exactly what you wrongly accuse me of doing, slurring the publication rather than the argument. But of course you know this and are just being deliberately contentious.

Something else positive in recent days and weeks (most visibly reported in Iraq and Ukraine) is soldiers showing common sense and refusing irresponsible orders to stand and be slaughtered, a la “Charge of the Light Brigade”.

Of course the logic of saying fight and be slaughtered or we’ll kill you (did Maliki really say that?) is just too stupid to contemplate!

“Something else positive in recent days and weeks (most visibly reported in Iraq and Ukraine) is soldiers showing common sense and refusing irresponsible orders to stand and be slaughtered, a la “Charge of the Light Brigade”.Of course the logic of saying fight and be slaughtered or we’ll kill you (did Maliki really say that?) is just too stupid to contemplate!”

Here’s something for the trolls to put in their pipes and learn about. Collectively, they have just a speck of the knowledge that Michel Chossudovsky possesses.

The Engineered Destruction and Political Fragmentation of Iraq. Towards the Creation of a US Sponsored Islamist Caliphate
The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham: An instrument of the Western Military Alliance
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

“Black is grey and yellow white
But we decide which is right
And which is an illusion”

Deluded is a human condition caused by using false brain processing to prevent seeing things as they are… in order to remain in some internal “comfort zone”. I think we all suffer from that – although some more than others.

“Deluded is a human condition caused by using false brain processing to prevent seeing things as they are… in order to remain in some internal “comfort zone”. I think we all suffer from that – although some more than others.”

Yup, twerp.

I should add that the above video contains graphic footage of “things as they are” that may disturb some Murrayistas.

I’ve just listened to latest BBC TV news. Several minutes of Tony Blair (from Abu Dhabi) saying that current developments in Iraq not caused by the 2003 invasion and giving his opinions on what should now be done.

Afterwards, the newsreader announced that this was now the BBCs top news story. I supposed it is, but probably not for the reason they are trying to suggest.

The above exchange of views on the pretentiously named “Global Research” outfit and its star, “Professor” Michel, demonstrates the importance of the presence on this blog attracting fellow sceptics like Resident Dissident, Anon, Kempe, Jemand, etc (apologies to anyone I’ve missed out).

The reason is the following: it’s been quite a while since I’ve been bringing up the question of “Global Research”‘s status, credentials and credibility. As so often, most of the Eminences and useful idiots have tried to deal with me by a policy of not responding: their inability to refute the points I make is masked by their mantra of ‘don’t respond to the troll’.

That tactic is of course seen by the general reader for the sign of weakness and/or ignorance it is and in any event has no effect on my input here. More importantly, though, the tactic only worked as long as I was a lone voice and becomes much more difficult to apply when other commenters start questioning and calling to account Eminences and useful idiots.

I wonder if Snowden will go down in history as equivalent in importance to those who in the last century provided nuclear bomb development information for the USSR. I don’t know who these people were, but the world owes then a huge debt of gratitude.

For Anon: this view is only deluded if your regard the US Empire as being entirely benign, as Tony Blair appeared to do. Nothing to do with left or right!

“What I cant understand is how the absolutely vile rubbish in their talmud is OK (eg shooting kids in Palestine after licking them on circumcision) is mitigated if the muzzies are up to the same transgressions?”

Leaving side the fact that I am not Jewish could you please just point out one case where I have ever offered such mitigation for such unjustifiable behaviour by the IDF.

Rubin. Correct. It was Zalmay Khalilzad who was the Ambassador. Pity it was not made clearer below.

‘Rubin was born into a Jewish family in New York City.[1][2] He graduated from Columbia with a BA in political science in 1982, and a Master of International Affairs (MIA) in 1984 from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. At Columbia, Rubin was a student of Zalmay Khalilzad, later U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations under President George W. Bush. Rubin also attended Boston University.’http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Rubin

I have given several responses concerning Global Research, listing the principals and even having to tell you that .ca at the end of url is the domain abbreviation for Canada and not California as you said. LOL

“The less sophisticated neoconservative responses are to simply deny the truth or the importance of these losses, or to somehow blame them on political opponents who either actively opposed the invasion or were dragged into tepid support of it under threat of jingoistic political attacks in a country rabid for revenge against “the perpetrators.””

Not being content with past mischief, now they’re reverse-engineering in Ukraine.

“I have given several responses concerning Global Research, listing the principals and even having to tell you that .ca at the end of url is the domain abbreviation for Canada and not California as you said. LOL”
___________________

Well, all you’ve been able to tell me is that the pretentiously-named “Global Research” outfit is run by one man and his dog (or bitch).

Quite amazing actually that a one-man show can deal with “global” matters, isn’t it?

I think I’ll stick with what Resident Dissident found out on that wiki site, it sounds bang on.

“So,according to the official 911 narrative forced upon the world by the Neocons 19 Saudi hijackers were to blame.”

Hardly forced – any internet search will find literally thousands of alternative theories preached by all and sundry enjoying free speech in our western democracies – I suspect that what sticks in your craw is that despite all that effort people are still free to agree with the official narrative.

“3/4 years ago Al Qaida in Iraq was a beaten force. The country had massive challenges but had a prospect, at least, of overcoming them”

But – if I remember correctly:-

A. Pre- 2003 there was no Al Qaida in Iraq.

B. The purported reasons for the war were primarily that Saddam had WMDs and that he was an evil dictator who needed to be removed and then the world and Iraq would be better off without him.

C. So – since A proved not to be true – and all at B above has proven to be the opposite of the declared intent for the invasion of Iraq – and now over a decade later with the death toll and instability climbing and increasing – how rationally and/or honestly does Tony Blair maintain his stance that he did the right thing in having Iraq invaded?

Either I am incorrect – or – someone ( hopefully not me) needs urgently to sit with a consultant psychiatrist for immediate diagnosis and treatment.

1. Did the CIA fund and train the Mujhadin ( which later morphed into Al Qaida) – when it ( the US) wanted to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan?

2. If the answer to 1 above is “yes” – and it is not an unknowing phenomenon for the US to have groups do proxy fighting to achieve a greater objective of US foreign policy – then…

3. Is it beyond the realms of probability that the US, wanting to see Assad out of power does this:-

i) Effects proxy funding ( via the CIA) of the Al Qaida fighters who are opposing the Assad government?

Comment: Surely – my enemy’s enemy is my friend – so what does the US have to lose if a proxy force is funded to attempt Assad’s overthrow? After all, Assad is a friend of Iran and Russia ( now both enemies of the US) – why not then fund the fighters and hope for the best in pursuit of the long-term strategy of the US in the ME.

ii) If the US has certain long-term goals in the ME ( and the US does) and Al Maliki is not playing ball as desired, why then not seek to realign Iraq along ethnic/religious lines – Kurds, Shia, Sunni – have it split then in a more manageable way deal with the fragmented entities?

Comment: The experience with Yugoslavia gives us a most recent example of this strategy in operation, with the Serbs kicking off the separatist action, and the West appears contended with the break-up. Thus, can we deny the attack on Libya and that the end game in a tribal society could not have been assumed not to be the quick return to strong central government in a post-Ghaddfi Libya, rather the fractionalisation that we see in operation today in Libya. Does it not make sense that to state that the same process is in play in Iraq today – as Chossudovsky has articulated?

Question: If Chossudovsky’s analysis is wrong – then who has a better explanation of the forces in operation today in Iraq? Or – is it as B-liar declared – there is a disconnect between the 2003 invasion and the consequential fall out today in Iraq. Who is right; who is wrong; and – who can post better and more reasoned explanations?

” The idea that further western bombing will make things better is so deluded as to beggar belief”

It goes much further than that with B-lair.

It is a bit like the US officer in the Vietnam war who told the media that he had to bomb the Vietnamese village to save it.

If there were not mad people running the world – then – when someone such as B-lair makes such a stupid, inane, illogical and delusional statement then the men in white would be around quickly to place him in a straight-jacket to ensure that he did not have any further chance to do anymore harm to any other human being or large section of humanity.

If we call – or – name ” Al-Qaeda” as a group sharing certain extreme Islamic beliefs – then that definition comes like “Christian” – “Muslim” – “Zionist”. In other words, there can be factions, sects, sub-groupings under the umbrella group, yet a common set of beliefs can be shared, but the expressions of the group come from different sub-sets. The main point is that there is an identifiable body/group.

It is just a blessing that Blair is a busted flush politically and has no power to take us into another war.

Good e-mail to Gurumurthy on Ch 4 News.

Posted by Ed on June 15, 2014, 6:44 pm, in reply to “Krishnan Guru-Murthy….shameful warmongering in his Snowmail ”

Mr Guru-Murthy,
In reference to tonight’s Snowmail (1).
Over a million dead Iraqis, cancer rates and a toxic legacy in Fallujah higher than those in Hiroshima after they dropped the atomic bomb, carnage every week in the streets, most people without a regular supply of water and electricity, medical facilities and care woefully inadequate…. and yet here you are selling Blair’s snakeoil for yet another “intervention” in Iraq, just like you did for the illegal invasion in 2003.
What is it about you that sees fit to treat a proven liar who bears personal responsibility for all of the above and much, much more, as a legitimate and sincere advocate of more “Western intervention” in Iraq? It’s nothing short of obscene.
Your reference to the “potential threat to the west from a new al-Qaeda style powerbase in the Middle East” is pure scaremongering obfuscation too considering you are more likely to be killed by a bee than a terrorist.

Ed Murray.

The Snowmail read:

(1)Blair backs another Iraqi intervention – but is his a lone voice?

Can Britain even contemplate intervention in Iraq as militant Sunni Islamists threaten to bring down the Shia-led government? The only man trying to force us to do that right now is Tony Blair. In an article and interview today, he rejects the idea that the 2003 war is to blame for the current crisis, arguing instead that it is the failure to confront Syria that has allowed the spread of extremism.
There are options short of an Iraqi style invasion, he argues, without spelling out what they are. But it seems clear that air power, intelligence and military support for the Iraqi army are what he has in mind. Virtually nobody wants to spring to his side in this conversation which, given Blair’s toxicity with so many people these days, perhaps isn’t surprising. But also given the potential threat to the west from a new al-Qaeda style powerbase in the Middle East, the lack of advocates for such military action is also rather surprising.

‘Where’s my famous supporter Michael Gove when I need him’, Blair might wonder. I’ll be talking to the British Ambassador to Iraq live from Baghdad and our Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jonathan Rugman has been talking to the son of the Iraqi President, who is also a deputy prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan.’

Meanwhile Agent Cameron is not going to be left out of the limelight. He’s been doing some Muslim bashing. He talks of British values and the need to observe the rule of law. Where do his secret trials fit into that ‘rule of law’? Has he ever read the Magna Carta. He was unable to translate the title when asked some time back.

He was our man allegedly (done as our bosses, the US and thus their bosses told him): Make big war with Iran. A war ensued, millions were killed, we openly armed Iraq selling lots of weaponry, covertly armed Iran, selling lots of weaponry, and with all the money and oil sloshing around, the CIA used the profits to exand their wholesale drug dealing business in heroin, and fund violent reactionaries, quislings, narco-states and death squads all over the globe, and expanding the cocaine side of their black-budget businesses massively.

So little of the money eventually began finding its way to the actual arms manufacturers, the guys with the lathes and the milling machines, working full pelt, that in the US and UK, the government stepped in to keep the lathes turning by guaranteeing payment, the Export Credit Guarantee Scheme, so that we ended up supplying arms on credit, on the never never, probably to both sides again but certainly to Iraq; there still must be legal argument over who actually owns the scrap metal rights in Matrix-Churchill’s appalling ‘SuperGun’. A well-meant suggestion that Lottery funding be used to compensate the taxpayer, purchase the SuperGun and set it up within deadly range of the Westminster Parliament, keep it in working order and test it from time to time, was dismissed by John Major, though people would have payed good money to see in action a weapon which could hurl a projectile bigger than a double-decker bus at the Tories.

Thatcher’s government connived with the US in fomenting the war Iraq-Iran and profiteering from it, they approved blackheartedly that proxy war was a gas, and better still, the taxpayers paying for it were mostly oblivious. Over-reach and hubris British style then struck, British companies, in their greed built and equipped for Iraq a poison gas shell making plant, with secondary capabilities making innocuous, chemicals, bleaches and stuff, and made sure Saddam had all the necessary nerve gas precursors, raw materials and stuff to give Iran (and the world) the shivers.

The Iranians were duly gassed in their millions, but the frontline was a bit porous especially in the Kurdish areas, where Iranian conscript soldiers were not quite deserting but certainly went temporarily AWOL, enjoying the hospitality of the friendly kinfolk of northern Iraq, with whom they had no beef, and many injured Iranians, half-gassed Iranians were cared for, medically assisted there, with a good many Iranian teenagers discovering a little of life outside Iran and away from military discipline and danger, for some, some R&R away from homes and families. This is where retroactively Saddam would be said to have over-stepped the mark with the poison gas (of which act Winston Churchill would surely have set his great seal of approval!) -disloyal Iraqi Kurds fraternising with ‘enemy’ Iranians, in one fell swoop he’d fix them both and put the fear of $deity, as a warning into his other internal splittists, the Shia of the South.

Poor old Saddam, he’d done many terrible things, but still in the eyes of the US and UK, he was a genius and could do no wrong, suggestions a Knighthood or an Archbishopric might be in order for him, came to naught, he soon realises he’s been done up like a kipper, he’d swapped a lot of oil, for piles of paper dollars, with far less calorific value, then blown his piles of dollars buying arms and fighting Iran, he owed money all over the place, his gas bill was extortionate, his oil is being pinched literally from right under his nose, he developed a bad back, and a painful in-grown toenail compounded his misery.

Kuwait, once part of post-Sykes-Picot Iraq, was cleaved off, long back by the Perfidious Albion, to create yet another oil-rich super-rich pocket mini-state, but being small, its oil reserves soon diminished, but by drilling well off-vertical, into neighbouring ex-parent Iraq’s huge underground reserves, the solution could be found and they soon began pumping it. Crafty Saddam quickly ended the war with Iran, tidied away the many corpses, then had a think, he must accumulate some big piles of the new Euro Wonga, Dollar Moolah (not the radical cleric) had been the cause of all his woes, with his oil selling at two cents a barrel, and he couldn’t print dollars himself like the Saudis could do.

With Fiat money, Mercedes money, Monsieur Saddam woud soon be back in the big time, they couldn’t treat him like this after all he’d done! But first those Kuwaiti ingrates must be stopped. The Americans for once incredibly “had no particular view on his inter-Arab disputes”, they gave the green light, but immediately once Saddam was off to teach the Kuwaitis a lesson, the signals changed from green to red. Kuwait, was the new Belgium, it was Poland, it was Egypt, they were cuddly and Saddam, was a m-m-m-monster lithped the BBC.

And so … Incubators, new new new new new Hitler, Gulf War 1.0, blah blah blah, Highway of Death, Revenge on the Southern Shia, sanctions, sanctions, dead babies, sanctions, still sanctions, dead babies, Gulf War 1.1, more dead babies, harmless ‘depleted’ nuclear waste and so on. There are some who believe he wasn’t hung but patched things up with Kaiser George Busch I’s successor Kaiser George Busch II and Queen LizardDeth and was smuggled out to Scotland, England, where he resides to this day in a bungalow by the sea.

Sorry, didn’t read message thoroughly, Tony. Scotland, eh! That would give the struggle for independence a whole new meaning!

ISIS may be an “unintended consequence” of the aftermath of the Iraq War, but the thinkers behind the neocons do seem quite good at using the unexpected to their advantage, cf 9/11. Now they could find a way to argue for bombing Syria,

I see my favourite discredited liar has been making (himself) some headlines again. Seems we need to launch another ill-planned, underequipped war on false premisses, against an adversary whose sponsors we are deeply committed to pleasing at every possible opportunity.

How times change.

Here’s Tony instructing the Turks to cool it and negotiate with the PKK in 2011:

How the Turks feel about the prospect of the PKK’s successors being armed and supported by the West (as they defend civilisation from the rampaging Qatari-proteges ISIS, has yet to be widely reported. Probably because it’s unprintable.

Oh, yes, RD, freedom of speech. All the main TV programmes and press outlets are so free that they do not cover important stories like RD’s fascists in Kiev attack on the Russian Embassy a day and a half ago.

“Oh, yes, RD, freedom of speech. All the main TV programmes and press outlets are so free that they do not cover important stories like RD’s fascists in Kiev attack on the Russian Embassy a day and a half ago.”

“I’m sure if he was at liberty he’d have plenty to say about current developments.”

Quite right Peacemaker. It is worse than what is disclosed in my article but I am not free to say in what way at the moment. But keep reading News Junkie Post, Global Research, NSNBC, Huffingdon Post and other alternative media. MSM is full of shit, like John Simpson tonight supporting Tony Blair’s view on the US having to take action again in Iraq. God, what a mess they have made of the planet!

”From my point of view – one of an ex-military analyst – I would say that I am extremely unimpressed by the junta’s performance so far.

The junta’s death squads have used all the means at their disposal to try to terrorize the people of Novorossia: they began with baseball bats, then knives, then guns, they assault-rifles, then machine guns, then heavy machine guns, then mortars, then heavy mortars, then regular artillery, then multiple rocket launchers, then attack helicopters, then attack aircraft, then cluster munitions, now even white phosphorus. And what did they achieve in military terms:

1) they are more or less holding an airport and one hill near Slaviansk/Kramatorsk
2) they have taken Krasnyi Liman (and committed a massacre in its hospital)
3) they apparently have 1000 or so men surrounded in the Lugansk airport

That’s it. They could not even take Slaviansk! This is with force ratios anywhere between 5:1 to 100:1, with heavy firepower, armor and total air supremacy. Sub-pathetic, really…

And, in the process, they have lost hundreds of soldiers who defected to the other side – often with weapons – they have gotten a huge number of their own conscripts killed, one group of senior “Alpha” officers was caught and several paratrooper recon units were made prisoner (the latest one yesterday). In Lugansk Ukie forces appear surrounded and the latest shooting down of an Il-76 by the NDF air defense forces was part of a desperate attempt of the junta to free these forces or, at least, to resupply them. In fact, there are all the signs of a desperate movement by land of Ukrainian armor and infantry to break through these units some of which, according to unconfirmed reports, have already switched sides.

As for the Novorossian Defense Forces (NDF), they now clearly have a solid air-defense network up and running, they seem to have plenty of weapons (even though they still lack some specific types) and most, but not all, of these weapons are truly trophy weapons taken from the Ukies (such as the 3 T-64 tanks recently shown in the news). The initial trickle of volunteers has slowly but steadily become larger (including volunteers from Russia proper) and the NDF is now clearly enjoying some fancy systems which could have only have been provided by Russia (electronic warfare, advanced anti-air systems, etc.). Yes, there are lots of Ukie tanks around Luganks, but as late as this morning a senior NDF officer in the area has said that “we can hold them for at least several months”. Finally, and for the very first time, there are signs that the NDF are mounting offensive operations.

I am basing all of the above on admittedly partial information, but to me all the signs are clear and point to one and only one reality: the Ukie offensive is going absolutely nowhere and unless Uncle Sam comes up with a dramatic way of changing the face of the battle, Novorossia will probably withstand the Ukie assault without over Russian intervention.

(TEMPORARY) CONCLUSION:

So far, I see the strategic-level scorecard for the AnlgoZionist as a complete failure. As for the tactical-level scorecard, it is probably too early to call, but I would say that it looks like the Empire is headed for a complete defeat. Of course, these are temporary conclusions and I don’t want to sound like Dubya with his notorious “Mission accomplished”. But I think that for all of us who get sick in their stomachs each time we hear of the latest Ukie atrocity it is important to keep in mind that so far the neo-Nazis and their AngloZionist masters are losing and that there is no reason to suspect that this trend will somehow reverse itself in the foreseeable future.”

Rumour has it that they (or at least some of them) are mercenaries paid for by beneficiaries of Saudi oil. Makes sense… wasn’t that also allegedly true of some of the rebels in Syria?

No-one agreed with Blair this morning… even Marr looked sceptical. Good old John Simpson! If I remember right he did the last of the softening up before “Shock and Awe”. Late 2002… 80% against war with Iraq. Just before invasion… down below 50%.

@Sofia. The empire is never defeated! Even in Vietnam they allowed the enemy to get an honourable draw, in order to get one of their men the Nobel Peace Prize. Ironically, Dr. H is belatedly talking sense. Pity the neocons aren’t listening. Hopefully EU will listen to him.

Was Henry Kissinger really a peacemaker, or just making the best of a big bloody mess in South East Asia?

Alfred Nobel and the Real Prize – Peace

“I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the “isness” of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal “oughtness” that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.”
(Martin Luther King – acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize – December 10, 1964)

As the inventor of dynamite, who amassed a fortune, Alfred Nobel thought that the destructive power of his invention would serve to bring an end to all wars. The modern day equivalent of Nobel’s thinking would be the concept of nuclear deterrence. Destructive power so overwhelming should make war inconceivable.

A French newspaper had misread Nobel’s brother’s death as that of Alfred. It published a less that admiring obituary terming Alfred Nobel, the “ merchant of death.” To avoid the posthumous reputation indicated by the premature announcement of his death, Nobel took the course of establishing via his will the Nobel Prize.

The purpose of the prize and the idea of peace

Alfred Nobel’s will bequeathed the prize:-
“…to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

Two men – two concepts and the idea of peace

If Martin Luther King as a humane, albeit flawed ( as we all are) recipient of the Nobel Prize can be deemed a martyr for peace, no more significant contrast with a fellow Nobel laureate can be found than in the personage of Henry Alfred Kissinger.

Kissinger along with the Chief North Vietnamese negotiator Lu Duc Tho received and shared a Nobel Peace Prize. How, I ask myself, could Kissinger ever have qualified for a peace prize.

Kissinger’s misdeeds over his career as National Security Adviser and Secretary of State read like a chronicle of red-blooded horrors for the scale of human destruction consequent upon his actions:-

◦Prolonging by four years from 1968 to 1972 the end of the Vietnam War.
◦Participation in the illegal and secret bombings of Laos and Cambodia.
◦Direct involvement in the destabilization of Angola.
◦As head of the Presidential Committee on Central America giving succor to death squads.
◦Supporting torture and repression under the reign of the Shah of Iran.
◦Giving military, diplomatic and political support to the racist regime in South Africa.
◦Directly assisting the murderous General Pinochet and undermining the democratically elected leader of Chile, Salvador Allende.

Tortures, wars of aggression, crimes against humanity, international terrorism, have all witnessed condemnation in the international community. If one gives support to and actively participates in acts that are manifestly illegal and inhumane does that make such an individual culpable? As Pinochet can accurately be termed a murderous dictator and torturer, and the House of Lords case in England permitting his extradition did not acknowledge Pinochet’s sovereign immunity, is Kissinger not one who remains manifestly accountable?

Among the humane expressions of concerns by this recipient of the Peace Prize, can be listed:-
“ I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people” ( translated: let us destroy Chile because we do not like the result of the democratic election – so let them be killed to be brought into line).

“ Why should we flagellate ourselves for what Cambodians did to each other”

Consider for a moment what the US with Kissinger’s direct participation did:-
President Johnson had halted the bombing in Vietnam, and Kissinger’s direct involvement ensured political deception and a false promise to the North Vietnamese, so as to facilitate, a hiatus and election of the Republican President, Richard Nixon. Four more totally unnecessary years of war continued in a war the America had already lost by 1968 and the figures of war deaths during the subsequent four years are:-

South Vietnamese – 86,101
Enemy – 475, 609
Americans – 31, 205

These are truncated numbers of deaths, deliberated limited to the four extra unnecessary years that the Vietnam War was escalated and made to last. What greater case for an indictment against Kissinger if the entire spectrum of his misdeeds were included. Add to this the facts of the secret and illegal bombings in Cambodia and Laos, and consider the accuracy of B-52s raining bombs from a great height on the Cambodians and Laotians, delivering to them with deadly ( even if not precise and accurately targeted “shock and awe”) what was callously termed “ breakfast”, “lunch”, “snack”, “dinner” and “dessert” as codenames for the bombing sorties. Add to these crimes some Agent Orange and chemical spraying of defoliants and pesticides and then apply some napalm and then inflict same on the people. Kissinger had a hand in all of this, knew and understood the levels of human carnage, was involved in the concealment from the press and Congress, and engaged in illegality at the highest levels in Washington. Putting it mildly, while 2,044,000 tons of bombs were, by Pentagon estimates, used during the entire Second World War, the US dropped 4,500,000 tons of explosives during the Vietnam War. For what we might well ask ourselves – for what?

China, the world’s most populous Communist country during the post- Vietnam era became a most favoured trading partner of the US. Vietnam was a poor peasant society, and what then was the war really about – Vietnam a threat to American national security? – was the war ever at all necessary?

Fortunately, however, Dr. Henry Kissinger as America’s undeniably most astute global analyst saw good cause in perpetrating and prolonging war in Vietnam, bombings in Laos and Cambodia, with quite intelligent geo-strategic sense in deploying deadly force against civilian populations. To his everlasting credit and distinction he has been duly awarded the “Peace Prize” for his tremendous humanitarian efforts.

Conclusion

If we do not at times reflect on history, we are doomed to repeat it.

Let the bombing of Iran begin and long live the necessary war in Iraq until the WMDs are found.

Without that audacious faith in the future of mankind, we might very well be left with only proof of the stupidities that forever confront man.

Thanks for the detailed reply, Courtney. I had no idea he was an enabler for Pinochet. I suppose they kept the war going to keep the arms manufacturers in business (American jobs for American workers… ?)

FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — WHEN I chose to disclose classified information in 2010, I did so out of a love for my country and a sense of duty to others. I’m now serving a sentence of 35 years in prison for these unauthorized disclosures. I understand that my actions violated the law.

However, the concerns that motivated me have not been resolved. As Iraq erupts in civil war and America again contemplates intervention, that unfinished business should give new urgency to the question of how the United States military controlled the media coverage of its long involvement there and in Afghanistan. I believe that the current limits on press freedom and excessive government secrecy make it impossible for Americans to grasp fully what is happening in the wars we finance.

If you were following the news during the March 2010 elections in Iraq, you might remember that the American press was flooded with stories declaring the elections a success, complete with upbeat anecdotes and photographs of Iraqi women proudly displaying their ink-stained fingers. The subtext was that United States military operations had succeeded in creating a stable and democratic Iraq.

Those of us stationed there were acutely aware of a more complicated reality.

Nice one Courtney on Henry Kissinger. I read somewhere in the eighties that one of Kissinger’s school friends said of him: “His sincerity is a millimetre thick” though I guess he spelt it millimeter.

Mary, when Russia has previously cut off gas to Ukraine, the Ukrainians just siphoned it off. What would you expect of a government that does not pay its gas debt, that wages war on its own people, that overthrows a legitimate government? No wise investor would risk capital in a country that cannot do honest business and economically it is doomed to failure. The US will help it of course by supplying military aid for killing its own people but that will only further impoverish a bankrupt parliament of thuggery.

However this shady government will have lots of support from “you know who” on Craig’s blog.

“However this shady government will have lots of support from “you know who” on Craig’s blog”
_________________________

Well, Mr Goss, whether people on this blog support or don’t support the democratic govt of Ukraine is completely unimportant.

What does matter is whether the Ukrainian people as a whole (ie, with the exception of some dubious facists in the pay of Russia/local oligarchs in the east) supports the legitimate Kiev govt and President.

“Well, Mr Goss, whether people on this blog support or don’t support the democratic govt of Ukraine is completely unimportant.”

That’s nonsense. It is very important for getting the real news out. I was happy to give Poroshenko the benefit of the doubt when he was first elected because of his pledge to visit Eastern Ukraine and negotiate with their legitimately elected government. It took twenty four hours for me to change my mind. He did not visit Eastern Ukraine, and had no intention of doing so, but visited upon it sophisticated weaponry. Residents there will hate him, quite rightly, for evermore. His government cannot last.

Getting a pattern here. Blair’s getting some sort of income (probably a cut of international aid) for ‘advising’ some very dodgy regimes on ‘governance’. Any further details? No.

We are currently carrying out governance work on a short-term basis, supporting the government to build delivery mechanisms to help deliver their long-term strategic goals.” This description in the letter was so general as to be meaningless*.

Burma Campaign UK has repeatedly asked for further clarification, regarding what kind of governance work is being undertaken, and what delivery mechanism and what long-term strategic goals Tony Blair is helping the military-backed government in Burma with. We have received no response.

* I beg to differ. It is so meaningless as to be a model of executive bollocks.

What was particularly blameworthy of the BBC was giving material from Blair’s self-promoting website prominence in its original news bulletins. I can’t help wondering if the machine isn’t using the wide public distaste for anything advocated by Blair as a get-out clause to avoid getting in too deep in Iraq. Actually, I hope so.

Johnson’s reported description of the latest turd on the doorstep as ‘unhinged’ is too mild, but true enough.

BBC woman on the red sofa to Simpson in Baghdad about the executions carried out by ISIS which are all over the papers this morning.

‘Tell us more John about this atrocity, the worse that has happened in Iraq since Saddam was overthrown in 2003.’ !!!

No mention by her of the US and UK atrocities in Iraq 2003 to date.

After he did his piece in that world weary voice (think of all the wars I have witnessed) she signs off – Thanks very much John. That was John Simpson the BBC World Affairs Editor live from Baghdad’. Were not the viewers fortunate to hear the words of the sage?

He thought the photos were genuine and had no reason to doubt their veracity………

__________________

The Guardian view on the Iraq crisis: a case of blame and shame
Posted by The Editors on June 16, 2014, 8:28 am

More surmising about the identities of Peter Kemp.I think you will find that Ba’al Zevul posts Monday to Friday.” Oh, OK, I hadn’t realised that some surmising had already taken place. Anyway : perhaps the Old Devil posts as Ba’al Monday to Friday and as Peter Kemp at weekends…..

““Well, Mr Goss, whether people on this blog support or don’t support the democratic govt of Ukraine is completely unimportant.”

That’s nonsense. It is very important for getting the real news out.”
_______________________

No, it’s common sense itself. Your belief about the importance of commenters on this blog reveals a disturbing degree of self-importance. It is also predicated on your belief that the “news” you provide is the only “real” news, and that is something that many light be inclined to query.

Thanks peter Kemp for your modern reworking of if, adding a smile.
Blair deserves everything he gets in his frantic re write of events.

That the media is amplifying his sad excuses as if they are in trance, whilst he hold justice Chilcots choker and plays international meddler, is the saddest thing since the creation of Israel.

Where is the journalists who is doorstepping Blair and writing about his and Jack Straws torture policies, the lazy and inhuman pre Iraq war planning, the chaos that was created by installing Maliki, rather than a balanced Government of all tribes.

Just been on FB anmd saw the full on Hasbarra action that is ripping Harry Fears messages apart, these students are getting really busy trying to make out that Hamas has kidnapped these three youth, one who is a soldier. They must be in receipt of bonuses and extra shekels for whoever finds a trace of the three.

Fred I watched the BBC News last night and there was no mention of it. Even in the link you provide there was no footage of the overturned embassy cars or damage to the embassy, and it looks like it was marginalised at 1 pm. and not as far as I saw shown again. But you do not address the many civilians killed in Eastern Ukraine, or the refugee crisis. All this goes unreported – or marginalised.

Brendan: I’ve yet to see a single neocon change his\her mind about the invasion. The facts speak for themselves, but still every neocon sticks by their position. I’ve no explanation for this, other than perhaps they have been advised to hold the line by their expensive lawyers. Or, they are scared of retribution …

hello Boss. How are you? The trolls went for a training day last week. The main theme was, if you don’t understand the issues, just talk gibberish. They are polyfilla for the polytheists, ok for filling the odd small holes in the decor with wood-cells, but not up to plastering over the cracks in neo-con ideology. They get their info from leaflets in DIY shops.

Always manages the to miss the nail so far as I’m concerned. last time it was when he was focusing his concern on the Shi’a shrines in Syria. “Bush and Blair said Iraq was a war on Islamic fascism. They lost”. No. That was the slogan of the War on Terror. We live now in a post Libya, post joint Al Qaida and USUKIS command. You can con some of the people some of the time.

Islam arrived in the UK with the Enlightenment. It was the source of the Enlightenment. Just because the powers that be didn’t want a Pope in Rome giving them orders, didn’t mean they didn’t want themselves to be giving orders to the people of this realm. The Anglican church still considers itself fervently to be a Catholic religion i.e. top>down.

Islam gives a furqan/standard, no spying, no lying at all, no stealing, no beheading innocent men women and children. That was a no no, so Islamic monotheism was mercilessly oppressed. The aspirations of Islam were recognised by everyone who had read the Bible, but the standard had to be destroyed or the powers that be would be finished.

It was finished by the extremism of Puritanism and Calvinism. That is what the CIA has been using Al Qaida for for the last bloody 20 years of our lifetimes. UKUSIS want the world to start getting ready to put Islam in the bin.

Millions of Muslims, but not the brothel creeping, i.e.gewads who grovel to the Government’s Prevent program and climb the slippery pole of UK politics by selling their fellow Muslims – are going to enjoy the Ramadhan Qur’an fest by reading and listening to the truth of the Qur’an.

“Praise be to the One who sent the Book and has not made it crooked.” Robert Fisk is entitled to his opinion. I am quite clear that ISIS is a CIA scam. Or should I say Sham.

Mary. He grasps the nettle but he isn’t a Sunni Muslim so he laments the destruction of shrines. If one good thing happens in the next few days in Iraq it would be the total destruction of the Shi’a shrines at Kerbala and Nagef. Not to mention the Anglican shrines of Buckingham Palace and St Paul’s Cathedral. I’m coming to London God willing on Thursday if anyone wants to join in.

He does seem to be out of the ballpark there. Bush used the term re. Hizb’ullah, not Iraq.

Saddam was a good old-fashioned secular-style fascist. He had some idea of assuming the Caliphate mantle – as everyone in the region routinely does – but an Islamic fascist he wasn’t.

Your own interpretation, Guano, admits that this isn’t a religious issue at all. It’s about power. It’s like a game of three-dimensional Northern Ireland, with seven or eight players. It’s ironic to think that the region in Ottoman times much more closely approached the globalists’ ideal: local tribalism ensuring that no-one got too united, a mobile workforce, endemic corruption ensuring an unregulated market, and the whole thing run for the benefit of merchants.

The current batch of mad fundamentalists are the modern version of Timur Leng, and their religious affinities are very much secondary (they don’t seem to be averse to smartphones, for instance, despite the proscription of images and music). Unlike Timur, though, they don’t have a monolithic army, but a dispersed and very flexible one. A direct frontal assault is not going to be productive, and any further interference by the West is simply going to multiply the problems we have already created, even, occasionally, with the best of intentions.

That’s where I bog down, and Fisk bogs down, and anyone with a halfway open mind bogs down, leaving the field clear for simplistic globalist cretins like Blair to repeat their mistakes. It would be better (horrific as the prospect is) IMO to declare a quarantine zone around the Middle East, pull the advisors* out, embargo arms as far as possible, and let the inhabitants sort it out themselves. What would emerge would either be radioactive glass, or a set of states bearing no resemblance either to what exists now or what the West would like to exist, but would in some sense be self-motivated to succeed.

* except Blair, who should be bound, gagged and transported from combat zone to combat zone, with his family, until dead.

[..]
Events in Iraq raise concerns among fans of the most widely respected military leader the world has known since the stricken Colonel Sanders licked his fingers for the final time and expired. Armchair Field Marshal (AFM) the Lord David Aaronovitch, the bellicose Times columnist whose recent oeuvre offers such cheery headlines as 2010’s “Iraq has moved forward, it’s time we did too” – and last year’s “Now we know why we invaded Iraq” – seems to be in retreat.

Although hopes of a full recantation proved naive, on Friday the AFM revealed that he declined an offer to explain the war’s transcendent success on a TV show, positing that further discussion of the matter would be “self-indulgent”, and citing his “straightforward lack of expertise”. However refreshing, this denial of his own omniscience comes a little late in the day, and the least this tenacious warmonger should do is debate in public. Perhaps George Galloway would care to test the limits of David’s courage under fire with an invitation. If the AFM vacated his trusty armchair for that, I believe the self-indulgence would be forgiven.

Yes I believe it is about power – US power, with a lot of small politicalfry swimming round the shark, cleaning its teeth and scavenging.
Because they are swimming round the shark, and not God, they get paid what God calls a miserable pittance, for serving the aims of the enemies of Islam.

If the CIA/Daish win in Baghdad and go onto Saudi territory which may be USUKIS’s forward plan, then the Saudis are going to get a taste of their own medicine. Right now both Jordan with CIA agent Abu Qatada, and Saudi with CIA Prince Bandar are in the frame for Arab springisation. i.e. a big dog shaking those countries like a rat and banging their heads on the ground before letting them go again.

It particularly annoys me when Jemand tries to portray this violence as part of the nature of Islam. The Muslims have been deceived into investigating philosophy in the past, and mysticism. Now they have been diverted into politics. Politics, like philosophy and mysticism are definitely not any part of Islam. If you go down these sidings, the track loops back into the jungle.

Muslims are told to do good deeds and set a good example. The points have been changed. They need to reverse back up the track, change the points back and get out of the political siding. If I was Kurdistan, I would not accept Kirkuk on the back of US/Daish activities. I would be siding with Maliki against CIA/Daish and kicking the troublemakers out of the country. Also I would make sure that the suited Daish who have UK passports and live in London were put back on the plane and returned to their masters in USUKIS Chavy Land.

Just because you intervened in a Sunni-Shia row that’s been raging since the 7th century, removed the one unifying force in a nation of about six different ethnic groups, made a complete hash of the occupation which radicalised thousands and pulled out leaving us the 7th most corrupt nation in the world is no reason to beat yourself up.
Saddam and his boys were utterly monstrous, and thanks to your £1.1trillion war we now have a bunch of new and interesting monsters to deal with.
We’d love to introduce you to them if you ever come over this way.
Hope you like the oil, and thanks for all the fundamentalists!

The state broadcaster ended the report with the advice to maintain good oral hygiene but omitted to warn about consuming sugary foods and sugary drinks which contribute to dental caries

There is no government action on this and in spite of the promises made earlier by Tory health ministers, nothing has happened. Are they supporting the Food Manufacturers’ lobby just like the line taken on Israel and Scotland Better Together.

Here is one of those ministers at the Food and Drink Manufacturers Assn. introduced by who else Michael Buerk. Notice it’s all ‘voluntary’ for the manufacturers and up to the individual to take their own action.

Fitness4London
As one leading academic in this field recently said: “Putting the food industry in charge of public health is like putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank” The 5 billion calories reduction target (and 1 billion alcohol unit reduction target) which Anne Milton proudly announces are a ludicrous charade. There are no effective regulatory measures in place to ensure these targets are met. There are no effective penalties for companies which fail to meet these targets. Total smokescreen.

Fitness4London
No wonder Britain’s health continues to get worse and worse, when government leaves it up to the food industry to lead the way to boosting public health. Anne Milton’s job title should be re-named: Parliamentary Under Secretary for Boosting the Profits of the Junkfood and Alcohol Industries. Her responsibilities include: removing statutory regulations that require reductions in saturated fat, salt, sugar, thus boosting the profits of companies which manufacture these addictive foods.

The Blair’s latest maunderings were issued on one of Blair Inc LC’s several websites, and it is unlikely the meejah would have noticed them had their attention been directed there by a Blair flunkey. However, Blair itself appears to have been in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, which accounts for the pathetically pro-Sunni-dictator, as opposed to anti-Sunni-insurgent tone of the piece.

It’s also of passing interest that even the South China Morning Post failed to notice The Blair’s visit to China last week. Was it simply to meet Renzi? Or is he just finding new opportunities for Zurich Insurance?

I’ve just listened to latest BBC TV news. Several minutes of Tony Blair (from Abu Dhabi) saying that current developments in Iraq not caused by the 2003 invasion and giving his opinions on what should now be done. ……

To the backers of Quartet Representative, Tony Blair:
United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon;
United States Secretary of State, John Kerry;
Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov; and,
High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Baroness Ashton.

Tony Blair does not represent us and we request that you remove him as Quartet Representative.

Not yet. The one potential unifying factor on all sides, except perhaps the Kurds, is detestation of Israel. A crafty factional leader could play this card successfully. And I wouldn’t bank on the Kurds.

Note also that ‘we’ve always been at war with Eastasia’, in Orwell’s words, is in the process of changing into ‘we’ve always been at war with the noble insurgents battling to topple Assad’ – in mine.

The idea that Saudi Arabia is a friend of ISIS is news to me. Bin Laden was stripped of his Saudi citizenship precisely because the Saudi royal family disapproved of him. I doubt that ISIS can expect much sympathy from Riyadh if the Americans decide to use drone attacks against ISIS armies in their conflict with Maliki, and Iran may well connive at the matter.

What a mess. Paul Bremer’s prevention of ex-Baath members from government employment contributed to it IMO.

Saudis aren’t too fussy about how their proxies remove Assad, (and neither, though their public profile is low at the moment, are the Israelis). They may not be friends of ISIS, but ISIS is well-supplied….

“The ‘excellences’ contribute by informing each other and maybe the readers..”

__________________________

Yes, that’s what I said : there’s about 10 people who use this blog as a sort of chatroom (probably because a real chatroom wouldn’t have them).

As for the “maybe the readers”, well, you could argue that spoon-feeding them all this “material” (for want of a better polite word) just makes them lazy and disinclined to find out things for themselves. And that would never do, would it.

ISIS is a put up job. Guano is right. This is the next phase of the Syria campaign. It’s got nothing to do with Iraq. I imagine this new stronger ISIS is made up largely of the people and weapons left behind in Jordan by those two recent US “exercises”, supplemented by Saudi and/or Qatari personnel and cash.

They’re getting hammered in Syria but, all of a sudden, ISIS manage to take a huge swath of northern Iraq? How is that possible?

The US will set up a “safe zone” or some such bullshit on the Iraq/Syria border once they’ve bombed the crap out of the desert and that’s how they’ll open another front. It will also help block Iranian support for Assad coming through Iraq.

Not a peep on Auntie today about who funds ISIS or where they get their weapons from.

If this is US policy, it will inevitably blow back on them, whether physically or diplomatically. It always does. An unstable, well-armed, guerilla-infested countryside is not a good environment for oilwells.

38 Degrees are seeking donations to run a big campaign. Their e-mail today says:

‘Dave, a 38 Degrees member from Minehead in Somerset says “it’s absolutely essential that we campaign on this”. And tens of thousands of other 38 Degrees members agree – the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is disastrous and together we have to do all that we can to stop it going through as it is.

TTIP is a hugely influential trade deal between the US and the EU. 38 Degrees members recently voted to prioritise stopping the part of the deal which lets businesses sue governments that introduce new laws that could damage their profits. This is already happening in other countries. Right now the Australian government is being sued by a tobacco company after introducing laws banning branding on cigarette packets.

Sounds sinister right? It really is. And, unsurprisingly, negotiations over TTIP are shrouded in secrecy. The deal’s being thrashed out right now by politicians and corporate lobbyists behind closed doors.

So if we’re going to beat this thing together, first thing’s first – we need to bring TTIP into the open. Let’s get TTIP out of secret negotiations, and into public conversation. We need to cause a massive public outcry to stop this trade deal from sliding under the radar.

Let’s create hard-hitting ads and splash them all over the country. From full page spreads in newspapers, to bus stops and billboards. The 38 Degrees staff team will work with an agency to come up with a brilliant design, and we’ll make sure it’s seen everywhere.

Together we can stop global corporations running our government and ruining our planet. Can you chip in a few pounds now to help fund a massive, people-powered ad campaign across the country?

TTIP would put the profits of big business ahead of everything else. It would weaken the rules which protect consumers, our environment, our welfare and health services, to much weaker levels seen in the USA. And it would stop future governments from rolling back privatisation of our public services, such as the NHS, energy companies, or the Royal Mail.’

No Fred, it is you who are wrong. And it is not the end of the story. The BBC has failed, and failed miserably, to report so many goings on in Eastern Ukraine you might forgive somebody for having missed one marginalised report of an incident in Kiev. It’s a bit like The Boy Who Cried “Wolf”. The wolf, or in this case report, was not expected. So do you think it is right that the BBC, for which most of us pay licence fees, should not report the killing of innocents? That’s what I think you’re trying to say. Am I right?

@Mary: Great that Boris is back on side. Do you remember his campaign with Adam Price – when he was editor of New Statesman) to get Blair impeached? I seem to remember that he then got sent to Basra.

@Mike: Plenty on the radio 5 phone in this morning… contributors almost unanimous in blaming Saudi (and the West) for funding ISIS.

Just as a lot of people are still deluded about US as an infinitely benign empire, a lot of otherwise good people remain deluded about Blair because they are devoted to the Labour Party, and therefore hooked onto one of their former leaders emotionally. But when such people turn against him… THEN he’d better watch out!

The bees and the other pollinating insects will just love Lord de Mauley’s ‘Agri Tech Strategy’. It should finish them off for good once the GMOs are introduced and us too. Waaay! Monsanto and Cargill here we come.

Mary’s comments at 6.05pm on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)are not on the main theme of Craig’s original post but raise a hugely important subject. So, Craig: grateful for your thoughts – in a separate posting – on these opaque negotiations which will have huge impacts on every part of GB and NI, whether united or separated and even whether in or out of the EU.

As well as the excellent John Hilary paper to which Mary gave a link, I recommend:

Do you remember all those previous occasions when Blair was lambasted a little in the media, and then exonerated just as things were getting interesting. I am surprised that Boris was so outspoken this morning, but he’s losing popularity because of the water cannon… this could just be his attempt to shore up his position (and speak his mind!).

I do wish you’d get your own blog. The subject is Iraq and ISIS, about which you have relatively little to say. So you fill in with Palestinian children, GM crops, drill free dentistry, Rebekah Brooks, and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Not forgetting a “melancholy song sung by Judith Durham”.

You do know you can get a free blog at Blogger.com? And they’ll even design it for you. All you need to do is put in text. Which with copy and paste can be done in the blink of an eye.

And since you’re so keen to keep Craig ‘informed’, you could post a link to your blog occasionally here. Or email him.

———

Meanwhile,

“Iraq blowback: Isis rise manufactured by insatiable oil addiction”

West’s co-optation of Gulf states’ jihadists created the neocon’s best friend: an Islamist Frankenstein

What a pity you didn’t have the courage to give Resident Dissident a full answer when he/she asked if you post at the Medialens message board. The answer you gave Macky at Squonk, when he/she asked if you’d really been “hounded off” that board.

383 reasons why Blair has been protected… the Labour and Conservative MPs who voted for war with Iraq, who would also be war criminals. Yes, Mary, you’re right, I’m wrong, Boris was one of them. So was that nice trades unionist chappie Alan Johnson.

Who knows much about Iraq? The takeover of Mosul appears to have been done with collusion between Washington and Tehran. As with all events in the last 20 years the devious machinations of the Zionists take a long time to be understood by non-devious minds.
Thanks for the link to Nafees Ahmad. Very well informed, but no clues as to why it’s in Maliki’s interests to give in to Washington’s revision of the boundaries plans.

Terror alerts, 9/11-style bombings and murders of British citizens will soon come to London’s streets, according to chilling threats from UK citizens fighting alongside Islam’s most violent terrorist group operating in Syria and Iraq.

The threat comes from British nationals fighting for the Sunni militant group calling themselves the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS) in Syria. According to the Sunday Times, they promise that after they’re done there, Britain is next. The message comes from three such fighters, all youngsters in their teens and twenties.

Interesting article, Mark, and even more interesting comments. The decision to embroil the UK in Middle Eastern power politics (which started with “arms for Iraq”), looks stupider and stupider. What will the history books have to say about Thatcher and Blair, I wonder…

“Would a sworn affidavit do, not that it’s any of yout f’ing business what I do and where.”

You write something on a blog, Mary, it’s accessible to everyone on the internet (unless the blog has been made private.) It stops being your business and becomes everyone’s. Sorry to tell you.

I found it very interesting that you were pushed off Medialens for talking about Jews (one assumes repeatedly) since there are more than a couple of people here who find your concentration on Jewish people OTT.

“but no clues as to why it’s in Maliki’s interests to give in to Washington’s revision of the boundaries plans.”

Who said it was? I didn’t see Nafeez Ahmed saying that. I’m sure Maliki is depending on Iran to prop him up.

I find it funny that Iran having offered to help the USA in stopping ISIS, the USA has already stated that such talks will be on the ‘periphery’ of nuclear talks. They need Iran, but want to hive off any such help from nuclear negotiations.

Boris is certainly elitist. He’s managed quite well at making comedy of it, but it’s there. He just can’t bear oiks.

Remember that Blair is disliked not only for Iraq, but for NI too. There’s many a score yet to settle on that nasty business.

Boris, when he edited The Spectator, was majorly critising Blair’s settlement. Many others from the right too. Old Tories, not the new Right. And he was involved in pushing some spookie characters to that purpose. So, there’s history.

Anyone remember Darius Guppy. Stress on the “i”.

They’re so up’emselves.

Blair has managed to annoy left, right and centre. He’s about the only one who can unite the UK, across the board. They should wheel him out for the Better Together campaign.

I’m sure that much media coverage of late has not been to his liking, and there’s Chilcot to come. He’s just too much in the news for all the wrong reasons. And then there’s all that stuff about his houses and him swanning about the world’s largest yachts and all the rest of it. Even Wendi Deng has the hots for him. In earlier years there was the FI/Tobacco scandal, his first, then the Berlusconi stuff, and his love for rich friends and their holiday homes, when he was still relatively poor. Then there was all that stuff about Carole Caplin and her ex-boyfriend and weird birthing gloopiness and questioned property deals.

Fact that Izzat insulted the Saudis; “cursed, the moustaches of the lot of them” (highest insult to to a man among Arabs) as he did in his last appearance in the Arab League meeting before the fall of Iraq.

However the Saudis are still bank rolling him along with the ISIS/L in a last ditch attempt to push their preferred method of reactionary governance.

‘I intend to join those tomorrow night who will vote against military action now. It is for that reason, and for that reason alone, and with a heavy heart, that I resign from the Government.’ RIP Robin Cook

Well. OK. As an onlooker I do think that there’s an over-arching,as they say, narrative here, and it’s one in which Iraq stands alongside dentists, and the TPP, and GM. It’s the rule of corporate nonsense against sense; the rule of insanity against sanity. Of course bombing Iraq, again, makes no sense. The Guardian readership have shot that attempt down in flames already. Of course GM, and the arguments for it, in a world of waste, makes no sense. Of course the TPP is a destructive, rigged, anti-human stitch-up – by all the accounts which have managed to get out.

If this blog is more than the thoughts of one person – which one assumes it is – then there’s surely space, as a current affairs commentary, for those reminders. They all seem quite urgent to me, anyway. And while the ridiculousness and horror of another attack on Iraq is getting quite a lot of coverage, the latest ruling on GM, and the TPP, are not.

It may well be that off topic posts are diluting the main message – and possibly preventing action. Are they?

Anyway, I do understand where the other posts are coming from, and I have noticed an increasing lack of focus (can you have an increasing lack of focus?) on Jewish connections, about which I am quite happy (understatement).

But I also think the questions asked about ISIS – who the hell are they? why are they all dressed the same? where is their equipment and funding coming from? – are the most interesting and intelligent I’ve seen asked about the whole affair.

So let me get this right. We support the Iraq government in the fight against ISIS. We don’t like ISIS, but ISIS is supported by Saudi Arabia who we do like. We don’t like Assad in Syria. We support the fight against him, but ISIS is also fighting against him. We don’t like Iran, but Iran supports the Iraqi government in its fight against ISIS. So some of our friends support our enemies, some enemies are now our friends, and some of our enemies are fighting against our other enemies, who we want to lose, but we don’t want our enemies who are fighting our enemies to win. If the people we want to defeat are defeated, they could be replaced by people we like even less, and all this was started by us invading a country to drive out terrorists who were not actually there until we went in to drive them out. I think I’ve got it.

“(Reuters) – President Barack Obama told Congress on Monday the United States was deploying up to 275 military personnel to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the country’s embassy in Baghdad after militants seized control of the north of the country.

“This force is deploying for the purpose of protecting U.S. citizens and property, if necessary, and is equipped for combat,” Obama said in a letter to lawmakers. “This force will remain in Iraq until the security situation becomes such that it is no longer needed.”

“The president said he was notifying Congress under the War Powers Resolution.”

Watch him and Andrew Neil with Alex Jones or watch him with George Galloway. It’s a performance.

I simply can’t see that Blair has had a good press of late, and not for quite some time. Remember that he’s negatively presented with regard to the Gadaffi “rehabilitation” too.

You just have to assess it from a marketing perspective. That’s what it’s all about, afterall.

When some Labour bod said recently that “Tony is toxic”, he meant that his brand is toxic.

That’s it!

Media is down on him. For all his good works and Catholic conversion and private meetings with the Pope, the media is presenting him in a negative light.

Why?

Oh yeah, and who is advising him on media strategy.

Not very good, are they.

The marketing of the Blairs was based very much on the Clintons, a clever husband and wife team that you suspected ran the country together, from their bedroom, passion and refection in equal measure, all real feeling human beings.